new year's eve

I didn’t believe what happened last night. In the afternoon I was thinking that I ought to have some plans before the new year approaches, but only in the evening that I began to send sms-es to my friends for them. They sounded desperate, to be honest and thankfully my friends replied rather politely, or I hoped. Then zijun replied with something like, “shan has church service…” and asked if I wanted to join. When I read that he gave me the impression that he was going to be there too, and that I wouldn’t be alone if I were there. Without second thought I asked shan if I could join, only to find that things wasn’t as expected. So when she offered to send me to her church for service from her mum’s ride, I was filled with thanks in my head. I made it there to her house in the end, after a vague remembrance of how her house was like from those baking memories more than a year ago. I went to the wrong block eventually and when I finally saw her, her Egyptian hairstyle gave me a shock of my life. It was still fine then until I went up to her house through the lift. When we went in, I pressed 2. She seemed surprised that I could recall her storey and asked while I reasoned that very few people had floors that allowed guests to walk. I went into her house and things didn’t seem right then; she had much more guests and I looked like I was the black sheep. Within seconds I realised I was sweating. “You’re perspiring,” she said, triggering my thought about the difference between those two words. Her mum then asked me about my hong kong trip and I think I was very much nervous to be speaking with my weird voice from choking by chlorinated water. Still, her mum and her aunt was quite friendly gave me the freedom to let myself be alone at times. Then there was her sister – younger one – Sheila. Shan calls her lala. She gave the smile that looks a little like Minnie mouse and it was rather amusing. She looked like she was going to say something all the time with her expression, but in the end nothing was said. Another thing, I think I’m really a bother to Sheila, because whenever we were going to sit in the back row of the jeep, I never took the initiative to move round the car. Instead, lala gave the semi-annoyed look, still with some smile, as she skipped to the other side. Meanwhile, shan and I stood motionless; twice. In the car I was still expecting to see the rest at the church, and although I decided not to start asking and show my fear of being alone with her family, I kept my hopes high. Shan, being a welcoming hostess, introduced me to the different people she knew in church, secretly, as we were walking towards the place to be. We ended up at some auditorium. The pastors said some interesting things, but of all, I learnt something; do not take the easy way out. He tried to lead us to believing that having the presence of someone beside you is a burden, as what many of us think often, for 15 minutes, only to crush all our shallow mindsets that walking with what you believe, or faith as what he used, rather than sight. I thought that it was quite true since there is no easy way out in life. If there is a choice, we should all be aware of the pitfalls of going easy. Another funny thing about the pastor was that when he was excited he tended to tiptoe and point with conviction. Then because of his a little plump look, everything looked interesting. Another pastor said at the beginning of his speech when he gave an announcement to welcome all newcomers to the church. People like me had to wave with our pamphlet and it was kind of embarrassing when all eyes seemed to be on me. Or at least, the four on my left, shan’s family, were. Later when the midnight mark struck, everyone gave our well wishes around, the guy two seats on my right also said, “Welcome to the church.” Unknowingly I said thank you with a smile, but I would have preferred to have stayed low profile. Anyway, I thought that it was nice to welcome newcomers. There was something I almost forgot. Because I didn’t take the pamphlet beforehand, I had none. Then right before the service started, there was an usher who wanted to distribute more to those who didn’t have. Shan’s mum took one and passed it to lala. It stayed there with her and so, I had to share with shan. I was fine with that, but I thought there was something fishy about that. Despite that, I began scolding myself for being ungrateful when I was brought to cleanse my soul inside. With two people sharing that pamphlet, it said that the service was a ‘watchnight service’ with a background for it. The funny thing about sharing it was that one was ignorant to what was happening, the other had no spectacles and was blind; semi-blind. So in a way it was quite amusing for me to see someone beside me trying to smell the words imprinted while I stayed as still as possible to avoid attention. The service was quite enlightening, as a summary.